In 2010 I got my first encounter with Between The Buried And Me when they opened the day at Graspop in a small tent which was – to my surprise – chockfull with fans. It appeared to be a settled band in their home country the US with five albums at their palmary and I was quite impressed by their complex blend of progressive rock and ultra harsh modern (scream)metal.

In October 2015 their seventh studio album ’Coma Ecliptic’ was released and the band toured for this album last two years. A concert at The Observatory North Park in San Diego – where they played the album integrally – was filmed in October 2016. They dedicate this to the lighting director Chris Hill, but I was planning to write that it was quite dark on stage during their intricate tour de forces. The audience seems to be very familiar with the material and reacts very enthusiast in the cozy club. Vocalist Tommy Rogers also plays keyboards, but that’s mainly to give him an attitude, since there is also a guy on stage who plays all the keyboards (and additional guitar lines) with a computer screen before him. The complex material is played well, the show is only one time interrupted for a welcome speech – right before ‘King Redeem / Queen Serine’ – and the magnificent guitar solos of Paul Waggoner are really ear-candy. To me he seems the only one who plays with the heart instead of the mind. Furthermore we want to mention that fans of Leprous, Periphery, Cynic and Devin Townsend should check out Between The Buried And Me if they did not do that until now. With ‘Life In Velvet’ they have a beautiful apotheosis, although one hour and eleven minutes is quite short for a DVD. It is a registration of playing the CD and that’s it.